File photo of a lake filled with froth and filth in Bengaluru
Bengaluru will vote this weekend for civic body polls being held at a time the IT city is angry about a garbage crisis and polluted lakes. The results will be declared next Tuesday.
Here are 10 developments in the story:
Voting will be held on Saturday August 22 for the 198-seat Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike council.
Half the seats are reserved for women for the first time in this poll. The women's quota was upped from 33 percent to 50 percent earlier this year.
The polls were delayed as the state's ruling Congress sought to trifurcate the corporation for better management, saying the city had become too big to be managed by one body. Opposition parties have accused the Congress of delaying the polls because of its insecurities.
Last month, the Supreme Court gave the Karnataka government and the state election commission a deadline to hold the civic polls, rejecting the government's plea for more time for the delimitation or realigning of the wards according to the 2011 census.
The century-old civic body was expanded in 2007 by merging seven city municipal councils, one town municipal council and 111 villages.
The BJP won the civic body election for the first time in 2010 by winning in 116 wards; the Congress won 62 wards and the Janata Dal Secular won 14 and independent candidates won the rest. The Congress government shut the BJP-led council four days before its term lapsed on April 22, and appointed an administrator.
Bengaluru is struggling with a colossal civic mess because of poor garbage management, bad roads, polluted water bodies and water shortage. Heavy traffic and inadequate public transport have also left residents disgruntled.
Installations of a crocodile and an anaconda have been used to draw the attention of the civic body in an innovative manner to the potholed and damaged roads of the city.
The garbage crisis worsened after villagers on the city's outskirts refused to accept the dumping of waste near their homes. Bengaluru generates over 4,000 tonnes of waste a day
Around 800 candidates from mainstream political parties, independents and rebels have filed nominations for the polls.
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